When dealing with the aftermath of a car accident, there are a lot of things that can go wrong without the help of an experienced attorney. People who try to file insurance claims on their own might end up with only a fraction of their damages paid. Those who try to file lawsuits pro se might never see a penny paid.
Working with a lawyer is one of the best ways to pursue damages after a car accident. Lawyers can help assemble your medical records, convert raw evidence into a theory of the case, and negotiate with the defense attorneys and insurance companies. At the end of the day, we will work to get you a settlement you deserve and, if that does not work, then we will fight the case at trial.
Call Howe Law’s Atlanta, GA car accident lawyers today at (844) 876-4357 for a free case assessment.
How to Tell If You Have a Car Accident Case in McDonough, GA
When people are involved in a car accident, they often have many questions about whether their case is serious enough and whether they have grounds to file a car accident case. Our car accident lawyers often start our analysis of a potential case by looking at these two questions, along with the third question of who is at fault:
Is My Case Serious Enough?
When you get injured in a car crash, it is often serious enough that you should consider calling a lawyer and filing a claim. Car accident cases with only damage to the vehicles can often be handled through insurance, and insurance companies are usually good about paying the full value of repairs. However, when injuries are involved and these cases get more expensive, insurance companies usually try to get the value of the case driven down, potentially by deceptive or unfair actions.
Never accept damages for your injuries without speaking with a lawyer first. Insurance settlements will often be too low, at least for the initial settlement offer. Additionally, you might not understand the full extent of your damages and could be accepting a settlement that leaves off damages for future lost wages or a spouse’s loss of consortium, among other areas of damages.
Grounds to File a Car Accident Claim
Whether you are filing an insurance claim, a lawsuit, or both, the grounds for filing are, simply put, that someone else caused the crash through mistakes. These cases are filed as “negligence” lawsuits, which are based on the grounds that the other driver caused the crash by breaching a legal “duty” they owed you. If the accident occurred because of a traffic violation or other unreasonable act the other driver committed behind the wheel, then you likely have grounds for your claim.
A duty is usually a specific traffic violation, such as drunk driving, speeding, texting while driving, running a red light, tailgating, etc. However, when drivers do unsafe things that do not violate a specific traffic law, they can still be held accountable in a lawsuit.
Some other things to consider when looking at your grounds for a lawsuit are that the mistake or violation at the heart of the case must be what actually caused the crash. If someone ran a red light but did not actually hit you, then that likely does not give you grounds to sue them.
Determining Who is at Fault
Drivers are often worried that they are the one who caused their accident and that their every move will be scrutinized. In many car accident cases, the victim might have been involved in some way, but minor contributions to a crash do not block you from being able to sue the at-fault driver. Instead, they just reduce your damages unless you reach 50% fault. At that point, you cannot recover from the other at-fault parties.
Remember, we look for who committed a traffic violation or drove unreasonably when determining fault, so if you were doing everything you were supposed to do, you would likely not be at fault.
Cases involving multiple cars could end up having fault divided among multiple drivers. In these cases, each at-fault driver is held responsible for their fair share of damages. For example, if two speeding cars crashed into each other and spun into your car causing $50,000 worth of harm, they might each pay you $25,000 if the court finds them each 50% responsible.
What is My Car Accident Case Worth in McDonough, GA?
Understanding the value of your case is often one of the next most important issues for victims who approach our car accident lawyers. We can do our best to help you understand what goes into calculating damages and how these cases are often valued, but we cannot put a precise value on your case without examining the specific facts of your case. We will elaborate on this below.
What Types of Damages to Claim
Car accident injury cases often involve “economic” damages and “non-economic” damages:
When victims claim economic damages for an injury, they claim the value of any medical treatment they needed, including follow-up care and therapy, both physical and mental. They can also claim any wages they lost out on because of the injury, including past, present, and future lost wages. Victims can also claim compensation for other expenses related to the accident, such as vehicle repairs, the cost of getting childcare while you are in the hospital, replacement services at home, and home nursing care costs. Essentially, any expenses caused by the accident should be claimed.
Non-economic damages are a value paid to reimburse you for the injuries themselves and the other effects that naturally flow from an injury. For example, injuries hurt; you can therefore get damages for your physical pain. However, injuries also lead to feelings of hopelessness, fear, and other mental and emotional distress, too. These damages can all be compensated as well.
Some injury cases can also include punitive damages to punish the at-fault parties, but these damages are rare and require additional proof.
Calculating Damages
Calculations of these damages are going to rely heavily on the facts of your case and what specific damages you faced. For example, we cannot put a one-size-fits-all value on medical care because some people suffer far worse injuries in car crashes than others. Lost wages also vary widely from person to person, and the effect that their injuries have on their ability to work will also vary.
We can usually calculate expenses – such as medical bills, vehicle repair costs, and childcare needs – based on bills and receipts showing what you paid. However, some economic damages are based on money you were billed but not yet paid. Some damages are also based on money you lost that should have been paid to you, which is how we calculate lost wages.
Lost wage calculations often involve looking at your wages before the accident and after the accident, with the difference being what you claim as your losses. If your injuries become disabilities and you cannot work anymore or must work a lower-paying position, then that will go into this calculation, too.
Non-economic damages are often calculated using a multiplier that is chosen based on the severity of your injuries and applied to the rest of your damages or, alternatively, by assigning a per-day value to your pain and suffering. Either way, these calculations provide a starting point for our lawyers to use for your calculations. This is also a highly fact-specific calculation, and your testimony about how the accident affected you will be some of the most important evidence used to put a value on these damages.
Common Causes of Car Accidents in McDonough, GA
Car accidents are often caused by some common violations and issues behind the wheel. Our attorneys are prepared to handle these kinds of cases, but we can also help you hold the driver responsible if they caused your crash another way:
Tailgating
Drivers who ride too close to your bumper are often liable for crashes. You should always have enough room to slam on the brakes in an emergency, and when a driver tailgates you, they put your safety at risk.
Speeding
Driving over the speed limit is a violation of the law, so if that causes a crash, the speeding driver should be found at fault. Often, speed is just one factor in a crash, and the driver can be held liable on other grounds as well. In those cases, the fact that they were speeding often makes the damages and injuries worse.
Ignoring Traffic Signs and Signals
Stop signs, yield signs, red lights, “One Way” signs, “No Turn on Red” signs, and other traffic signs and signals are used to help make driving safer. When drivers ignore these signs, blow through stop signs, or turn down a road they should not, they put others at risk. Getting proof that the sign was visible and yet ignored is often enough to get these drivers to be found at fault for a crash.
In a lot of intersection accidents, the crash only happens because one driver entered the intersection illegally. Whether this means running a red light, running a stop sign, illegally turning right on red, or trying to make a turn where they cannot, the driver who entered the intersection at the wrong time is at fault. These crashes are not a matter of who got there first but rather who was allowed to be there when the crash occurred.
Distracted Driving
Whether the driver was texting, reading, looking at their radio, reading billboards, or even arguing with a passenger, these distractions behind the wheel can lead to serious crashes. Drivers who are too distracted to avoid a crash are often too distracted to brake in time to reduce their speed going into the crash. As such, these crashes often happen at high speeds.
Drunk Driving
Similarly to distracted drivers, drunk drivers cannot react in time to stop and often crash at high speeds. Drunk driving makes it hard to react, make good decisions, and control your vehicle properly, which is why drunk driving is illegal in Georgia and all 50 states.
Failing to Check Blind Spots/Improper Lookout
Drivers who cannot see dangers cannot react to them. If a driver moves into your lane in a way that indicates they do not see you there – perhaps without signaling – then you might not have time to react and get out of their way before they crash into you. This is often a big deal with larger vehicles and trucks, whose blind spots are often much bigger.
Even without blind spots, drivers need to look where they are going to see dangers. If a driver fails to look both ways or is looking down at directions instead of where they are driving, they could cause a potentially serious crash.
When to Contact a Lawyer for Help with a Car Accident in McDonough, GA
The law puts an outside limit on your ability to file a car accident lawsuit after 2 years. This rule comes under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-33, Georgia’s statute of limitations. However, even though this is the final deadline to file your case, you should always call a lawyer much earlier in the case.
On the day of the accident, you should focus on recovering from your injuries. If your injuries are severe enough to require hospitalization, you can usually wait until you have been released to contact a lawyer, but you do not have to wait that long. It is essentially never too early to call a lawyer, and our attorneys can begin helping with evidence collection and assembly very early in your case.
However, most cases are not going to be ready to file until after our lawyers spend a few weeks or months on your case, depending on the complexity. This means that you cannot wait until the last minute and should call us earlier. At the same time, police reports and vehicle appraisals usually are not ready until a couple of weeks after a crash, and we cannot file until we have those in most cases.
If you are trying to decide when to get in touch with our attorneys, always err on the side of calling earlier, as any delays at the beginning will also ultimately delay your final settlement or jury award.
Call Our McDonough, GA Car Accident Attorneys Today
For a free case review, call Howe Law’s car accident lawyers at (844) 876-4357.
